Generalization

I have always had a problem generalizing. While writing my major research project last year, I thought it was so obvious that the historical statistical data pointed to a general theme that I was studying. Assuming this was almost my downfall while working on the project. So obviously, I found Luker's section on generalization extremely informative. 

One piece of advice I found extremely helpful is to "Anticipate the kinds of criticisms that people will make of you" (Luker, 2008, p. 125). Oftentimes, when I have, what I consider at the time, to be a stroke of genius, the connections are only made in my head. I often try to ‘talk-it-out’ with someone, especially when I was doing historical research. Is what I’m saying too abstract?, does it only make sense to me? Do I need to make stronger connections, or make them more clear?. Oftentimes, when I explain it to someone, I can the holes, missed connections, or problems with my interpretation of data. This, I think, will be important when designing my own research project, again. However, Luker also states that it is important to generalize, but also ‘bump up’ the study to get more related research. I think that the balance she is writing about here is difficult to attain, but important to good research.